ALBANY, NY-Sematech has appointed Michael Lercel to the role of senior director for nanodefectivity and metrology, leading both Sematech 's ongoing metrology program and a new Nanodefect Center based at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering's (CNSE) Albany NanoTech Complex. As director of these two initiatives, Lercel will serve as the technical liaison between partner companies and will be responsible for developing and executing strategies to overcome the industry's most pressing defectivity and metrology challenges.

Sematech 's Nanodefect Center aims to build industry participation in detecting, modeling, characterizing, and providing solutions for defect issues as geometries shrink below the 10 nm node. The center will expand upon Sematech 's world leading suite of metrology and analysis capabilities to investigate the generation, propagation, removal, and impact of defects generated by equipment, equipment components, and materials used in advanced semiconductor processes such as lithography, etch, CMP, deposition, and cleaning.